The invention concerns a device to make expert knowledge available for a user of a medical examination device with a transmission system in order to transcribe at this examination device a handbook procedure of an outside expert in the form of pulse sequences, protocols, parameter sets or the like for the examination device, coordinated with precise medical diagnoses by the inquiring user.
The operation of complex medical examination devices requires a sizable knowledge of the operator if he or she would like to utilize the full capability of the device. Less well-educated users on such devices can profit from the experience of well-educated experts, even when the latter are not directly available for consultation.
This is particularly true for MR scanners which can be adjusted via a plurality of parameters on the basis of particular clinical problems. There are institutes which exercise a substantive function in the definition of clinical protocols.
Additionally, radiologists must abide by “school medicine” in order to avoid malpractice. The problem is that the user, for example, the radiologist in a solo practice, must achieve a simple way of accessing the knowledge of highly specialized clinics or colleagues without having to forego an innate flexibility with regard to the possible settings of the examination device.
A device and a method to detect, process, and evaluate medical measuring data is known from German patent document DE 196 37 219, in which respectively only the measurement heads or similar elements of the examination device are arranged at the location of the user to reduce the device costs for the doctor, while the device components serving for its operation and its evaluation are centrally administered by a provider that is connected to the computer of the doctor.
Apart from the fact that, especially for particularly expensive devices such as MR scanners, no cost savings can be achieved in practice in this manner, since the device components required at the location account for the largest part of the costs, and that the externally located image computer accounts in all cases for at most 10% of the costs of such a device, this known arrangement is not an improved utilization of the device assisting a user, and absolutely not an improved utilization for such devices that already possess all the necessary parts and the necessary image computer as well.
The subject matter of the present invention is not only relevant for the practice of a doctor in single practice that cannot handle the devices, but rather the subject matter of the present invention also makes the expert knowledge available for large practices and clinics, since there is also a need to optimally set the respective devices.
Therefore, an MR scanner is briefly explained below. An MR scanner has approximately 30 setting parameters, including, for example, the echo time, the repetition time, the slice thickness, the slice distance, the slice position in three axes, the number of the averagings per layer, the flip angle, the matrix size in x-direction, y-direction, and z-direction. The optimal setting of such an MR scanner is thus exceedingly complex in light of this plurality of setting parameters, and this setting is often very difficult for the personnel in a clinic to decide. However, given certain intuition of the examiner, respectively different settings must also be undertaken for special x-ray devices and their use that the doctor or the personnel in the clinic can not accomplish when they do not regularly operate such a device.
Published German patent specification DE 198 50 122 A1 discloses a system and method for the configuration and parameterization of a diagnosis device for subjects discussing the overall programming of the diagnosis device. This reference does not address the optimal adaptation of a device to the respective application (thus for example a special setting of a medical examination device according to personal data). This method for configuration and parameterization of a diagnosis device is thus not particularly relevant to the goals of the present invention.